Part of our history

The White Album

First published in 1979, The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s....

A great portrait of a fascinating time.

By
George
on
04-01-13

Al Franken, Giant of the Senate

By:
Al Franken

Narrated by:
Al Franken

Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins

Unabridged

Overall

13,590

Performance

12,564

Story

12,428

Al Franken, Giant of the Senate is a book about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history....

Perspective is everything

By
srqartist
on
07-06-17

Here I Am

A Novel

By:
Jonathan Safran Foer

Narrated by:
Ari Fliakos

Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins

Unabridged

Overall

1,021

Performance

931

Story

931

Unfolding over four tumultuous weeks in present-day Washington, DC, Here I Am is the story of a fracturing family in a moment of crisis....

Great book, probably best to read (not listen) it.

By
Amazon Customer
on
10-18-16

Dorothy Parker

By:
Marion Meade

Narrated by:
Grace Conlin

Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins

Unabridged

Overall

108

Performance

70

Story

68

She was known for her outrageous one-liners, her ruthless theatre criticism, her clever verses and bittersweet stories. But there was another side to Dorothy Parker....

heartbreaking and hilarious

By
Heimo
on
01-05-10

Freedom

A Novel

By:
Jonathan Franzen

Narrated by:
David LeDoux

Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4,453

Performance

2,087

Story

2,094

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul....

Enjoyable book. Really liked the narration.

By
R. Spangler
on
12-13-10

The Magician of Lublin

By:
Isaac Bashevis Singer

Narrated by:
Larry Keith

Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins

Unabridged

Overall

23

Performance

11

Story

10

He holds the key to all hearts, but his own is beset with confusion....

Complex Masterpiece

By
Evan
on
09-11-08

Our Story Begins

New and Selected Stories

By:
Tobias Wolff

Narrated by:
Anthony Heald

Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins

Unabridged

Overall

64

Performance

24

Story

24

In this potent new short-story collection, the first in over a decade, Wolff displays his mastery over a quarter century...

Great

By
chris
on
04-11-08

You Don't Look Your Age

And Other Fairy Tales

By:
Sheila Nevins

Narrated by:
Lena Dunham,
Meryl Streep,
Katie Couric,
and others

Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins

Unabridged

Overall

324

Performance

303

Story

303

Sheila Nevins is the best friend you never knew you had. She is your discreet confidante you can tell any secret to, your sage mentor at work who helps you navigate the often uneven playing field....

Not what I was hoping for at all.

By
Lili
on
06-19-17

Publisher's Summary

New York City is not only The New Yorker magazine's place of origin and its sensibility's life blood, it is the heart of American literary culture. Wonderful Town, an anthology of superb short fiction by many of the magazine's most accomplished contributors, celebrates the 75-year marriage between a preeminent publication and its preeminent context with this collection.

Wonderful Town touches on some of the city's famous places and stops at some of its more obscure corners, but the real guidebook is to the hearts and the minds of those who populate the metropolis built by its pages. New York is every great and ordinary place. Each life in it, and each life in Wonderful Town, is the life of us all.

Story

Great stories and readers, but technically sloppy

There are some fantastic stories in this selection, and I really love the way they span the decades from the early 1940s to the present day. New York itself is peripheral to some stories but central to others. The stories are often poignant and sometimes funny. The readers are excellent.

One thing that really irked me about the selection, though, is that between stories there is no pause. As soon as the last word of a story is spoken, they are introducing the next one. It happens before I can grab my player and hit pause so that I can savor what I've just heard.

Also, although the book is divided into two parts, there are no electronic stops in between. If you lose your place, it's very hard to scroll through all of that stuff to find where you left off. This is a general criticism of I have of many Audible books, but in this one it's particularly bad because there are so many obivous places that pauses could have been inserted.

Only mildly interesting ...

After almost every story, I had the same thought: why was this story even accepted for publication? The stories are, for the most part, about mildly interesting people in in mildly interesting situations. The story about the pregnant woman is a perfect example - woman is a few weeks from giving birth, woman has minor birthing complications in the hospital, baby is born fine, end of story. Nothing particularly gripping, nothing particularly insightful. So it goes, for the most part, with this entire collection.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

a range of emotions from joy to deep quiet reflection

Any additional comments?

I would have liked to have even more stories included in this recording

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Overall

Performance

Story

RONAN O'CALLAGHAN

11-01-15

Disappointing selection

Having been a follower of the New Yorker Fiction Podcast for a few years (early on I explored the archive so I've listened to the 100+ stories, many more than once) I turned to this anthology in the hope of feeding my habit. I am perhaps a little premature in posting a review at this point when I am just over half way through but I have to say I'm very disappointed by this selection - mostly in the choices of story rather than the readers. There are a couple of gems: the Woody Allen is clever and entertaining while the Nabokov, which I first heard in the fiction podcast, is stunning, worth the price of the download if it were not already available for free!But most of these stories lack the ingredients of insight, imagination and mastery of language which make me a fan of the form. One, a tedious reminiscence about two twenty year old students visiting girls in New York, published in 1955, lasts 1 hour and 8 minutes and I would like that time back please.